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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SIOUX FALLSMarch 25, 2016Kevin McGuffKelsey MitchellAmeryst AlstonSioux Falls, South Dakota Tennessee - 78, Ohio State - 62 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Ohio State University. We'll start with an opening statement from coach. COACH McGUFF: Credit Tennessee. I thought they played outstanding tonight. They were very good. They're playing terrific basketball right now. Proud of the effort we put forth, even though we came up on the short end. Proud of the season that we had. Especially proud of our seniors. Ameryst, Kalpana, Cait, who couldn't be in the game tonight. We made a lot of progress since we showed up here. Certainly they've been a big reason why. Once again, credit to Tennessee. They were better tonight, deserved to win the game. Just proud of what we accomplished this year. Wish we could still be playing. But it's just tough. Anytime it ends, it's really hard, so... THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. How hard was it dealing with their size, keeping them off the boards? AMERYST ALSTON: I mean, they were a very tall team, from the guards all the way down to the posts. With that we just needed to make it a more physical game, getting a body on those bigs because they were so long. KELSEY MITCHELL: Yeah, they were able to alter a lot of things we do offensively and defensively. Very athletic players. Like Am say, you got to get a body on them, box them out as much as possible. Q. Kelsey, did Tennessee do anything different in its zone than the zones you've seen all season? KELSEY MITCHELL: It's pretty much the same. Try to swing the ball in as fast as possible, get the ball inside as much as possible. But it was the same. Q. Am, where do you see this program right now? Where do you think this program has gone, based on what you accomplished this year? AMERYST ALSTON: I mean, I'm just so proud of our team, this program. We've struggled in the past years when I first got here. Coach McGuff coming in, built a new atmosphere. I mean, I think we have a lot of potential. I think even next season they're going to set the bar high and looking to get right back here and further. Q. Kelsey, how hard was it to maybe get the pace you wanted in this game? KELSEY MITCHELL: I think the pace was there. It's just one of those things where our shots didn't fall. Credit to Tennessee because they got the ball inside. They did a lot of things to alter how we wanted to get the ball out, how we wanted to get our pace going. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. We'll excuse you back to the locker room. We'll continue with questions for Coach McGuff. Q. Did you think the ease with which Tennessee scored early going inside maybe affected the confidence of your team early on? COACH McGUFF: I think it definitely did. They got off to such a great start, really established themselves around the basket. Shook us a little bit. The other thing is we didn't get enough stops or rebounds or steals to get ourselves in transition to get the game we wanted it. They were just scoring so much. Q. When you look at the 53 to 26 on the boards, is this maybe the biggest team you've faced this year? COACH McGUFF: Yeah. But they're not only big, they're good. They can throw the ball inside. We played some other people that throw it inside, but they don't necessarily finish and score as well. Tennessee has good players to throw to. Their size and strength around the basket certainly altered the game. I think that was ultimately the difference. Q. Kevin, ultimately, how big of a factor just being short of bodies do you think it was? COACH McGUFF: It's hard. But, like I said, it's no excuse because Tennessee was great tonight. I think that was the story. Tennessee played a great game. Our kids, it wasn't because they didn't want to, but we were a little bit off. Didn't play our best game. Like I said, a lot of that had to do with Tennessee playing so well. So I give them credit. We've had some tough injuries, but that's part of the game. We came up on the short end of the stick tonight. Q. Where do you think you are really right now in terms of going home? Do you let them away from the gym for a while? COACH McGUFF: I'm proud of the progress we've made since we've been here. I think we've done it the right way. We have a lot of good, young players in the program still, and a lot of people coming. We made a step this year getting to the second weekend. I think we learned some things from last year. Now the biggest thing, we have to learn from what happened this year. We need to have a great off-season. We'll give them a little bit of time here because we've played a lot of people a lot of minutes and they need some rest right now. But then we'll get back in the gym quickly and make sure we continue to improve and get better. I think the future's extremely bright. But, you know, we got to keep working. Keep fighting, scratching and clawing to get better as a program. Q. This is the first time this community has hosted an event like this. Your impressions of your visit here? COACH McGUFF: I think Sioux Falls has been outstanding. The hospitality has been great. This facility is tremendous. I was really happy to see the fans that showed up tonight. I think this is a great place for events like this, for women's basketball. It's great to see a community support an event like this so well. I've been extremely impressed. Q. Tennessee's zone, seemed like they extended a little more. Did they do anything differently with Kelsey? Didn't seem she could get very good shots early on. COACH McGUFF: Yeah, two things. One, just in general, their length is a problem. They're playing Jaime Nared and Diamond. They're just really long. In general, their length was problematic. Then the other thing, I thought as the game went on, we kind of got them spread out and drove the ball. We didn't necessarily take a great shot at the end, but when we're driving, Mercedes and Bashaara are in there, they're longer, they were affecting those shots more than what we normally see. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much for your time. COACH McGUFF: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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